This Startup Built an 'Easy Button' for Restaurant Chaos

Restaurants today juggle dozens of tech systems and the average employee barely sticks around for two months. Can AI-driven text support simplify the chaos and scale into a billion-dollar opportunity?

In episode #160, we meet Luisa Castellanos of Science On Call, who's already serving 900+ restaurants, approaching $2M ARR, and turning tech troubles into quick texts. But will she get VCs to bite?

🎥 Watch Luisa’s pitch on YouTube or listen in your favorite podcast app 🎧

Imagine you're managing a bustling restaurant during peak lunch hour. Your point-of-sale system crashes while DoorDash orders keep flooding in and you've just run out of your signature dish. Updating this across multiple platforms means logging in, authenticating, and hunting through endless menus.

All while hangry customers stare you down.

This isn't just stressful—it's everyday reality for America's 850,000 restaurants. The average restaurant employee stays only 59 days, barely enough time to learn complex tech stacks, let alone troubleshoot them. Luisa put it this way:

"You might think restaurant operators want more dashboards and analytics. But every time we've offered it, they just say: 'tell us what we need to do.'"

The Magic of Texting 🪄

"Toast is not gonna solve this for you," Luisa explained. "They'll tell you how to solve it yourself. And then you spend an hour doing it."

So Science On Call simplified the entire process. No more dashboards and passwords. Just send a text, and it's handled. By AI agents.

Human First, AI When Ready

Their thoughtful approach paid off:

• Efficiently scaled to over 900 locations

• With 70% margins, trending towards 85%

Yet they kept the human touch. "Restaurants don't want to go somewhere else for support," Luisa emphasized.

Humans build trust, while AI scales quietly behind the scenes.

And restaurant operators are clearly ready for that kind of solution. According to the National Restaurant Association’s 2024 industry report, 76% of restaurant operators plan increased tech spending next year—not for more dashboards, but for tools that deliver tangible results immediately.

Because when your employees typically stick around for only 59 days, your solutions need to work from day one—not day sixty.

🎥 Watch Luisa’s pitch on YouTube or listen in your favorite podcast app 🎧

Watch Luisa pitch Science On Call

What The Pitch investors said

• Strong product-market fit and real-world traction

• Clear founder vision backed by deep industry expertise

• Remarkable customer stickiness (3% yearly churn)

Concerned with:

• Scalability challenges inherent in service-driven models

• Competition from restaurant tech giants like Toast and Square

The Essentials

• Company: Science On Call

• Founded: 2020

• Industry: Restaurant Tech/AI

• HQ: Chicago, IL

• Cofounder/COO Luisa Castellanos, other cofounder/CEO Andy Freivogel

• Currently Raising: $2M Seed Round

• Business Model: Monthly subscription per location

• Revenue: $2M ARR, aiming for $4.7M ARR by year's end

Founders

Investors